 As
most poker players, I have a certain set
of “rules” that I play by.
Some of them are general rules dealing with
how I approach the game and others are more
specific like how I play a particular hand
against a particular type of player.
Today I’m going to share with you
two of my general poker rules, specifically
as they apply to No Limit Texas Holdem’
tournaments, though they are also equally
valid in Cash games.
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Rule #1: Apply pressure.
Your bets MUST apply pressure to those acting
after you. This is the first thing I tell
struggling / timid players and the first
thing I remind myself of when I’m
running bad. You have to make sure that
your bets cause the other players to have
to make difficult decisions. How often do
you see players opening with a minimum bet,
or raising the minimum from late position?
These bets don’t apply pressure, they
merely build the pot.
Here’s a typical example:
Blinds are 50/100, early in a live multi-table
tournament; assume everyone has 1800 in
chips. You have AKo (Big Slick)
in late position.
2 players call before it gets to you in
the cutoff seat (one before the button).
You like your hand and decide to raise.
You raise to 200. While it is a fantastic
idea to raise with Big Slick, you need to
raise a larger amount... you need to apply
pressure!
This is a very common example of a no-pressure
bet that is very common by new players and
bad players! If you are going to raise,
you need to make a hefty sized raise to
make most everyone fold!
Think about this, You have two callers who
already have 100 invested plus the button,
SB and BB left to act. Your raise didn’t
cause anyone a second of anxiety. The button
now has odds to call with many drawing hands,
the BB only has to put one bet in to see
the flop and there’s no way the initial
limpers are going to fold for one more bet
each.
What have you accomplished here? The answer
is nothing good. Not only have you not isolated
against a single player, which should be
your goal with this hand, you have built
the pot to an amount that gives the chasers
a great reason to stick around!
The right move here would be to raise a
minimum of 3xBB. But I think in this situation,
with 2 limpers and 3 players to follow that’s
amount is still probably too small. I think
a bet of 4-5xBB is the better move.
This bet will apply enough pressure that
you may actually win the hand right there.
But in this situation, you've bet
$200 pre-flop (the minimum raise).
The SB folds and everyone else calls. The
pot has 850.
The Flop comes 78K
with two hearts, it’s
checked to you.
You've hit Top Pair, Top Kicker which is
a strong hand. You are most likely in the
lead right now but there are 2 hearts on
the board (you don't hold the King of Hearts,
either).
You bet 200.
This was a great flop for you, but it is
dangerous. There’s a possible 4 flush
and 4 straight. You’ve got to bet
an amount that will put pressure on the
drawing hands and 200 just won’t cut
it. No one is going to fold their flush
draw to a 200 bet when they can win a 1000+
pot.
You need to size your bet accordingly. So,
what sized bet would be good enough to put
pressure on the flush draw? A bet of about
¾ of the pot should do it.
If you put 600 in the pot, the flush draw
now has a big decision to make. That bet
will put more than half of their stack in
the pot, if they call they’re basically
committing to play for the rest of their
chips. (This is a very important point.
Pay attention to your opponent’s chip
stack. A bet that commits their stack is
a pressure bet.) If they know what they’re
doing, they’ll fold right there, if
not you’re about a 3:2 favorite to
win the hand and more than double your stack.
In this situation you bet 200 on the flop.
The BB & first limper call.
The pot has 1450.
The turn is a 2 of spades.
You bet 400.
The turn was great for you, it didn’t
help the straight or flush draws, but your
bet was again too small. A flush or straight
draw only has to pay 400 for a chance at
1850. The pot is giving almost 5:1 on a
4:1(approximately) draw. A ½ pot
bet would have put the necessary pressure
on the chaser, while 400 is an easy call.
The BB calls.
The river is a T of clubs.
You check, the BB bets 500 and you call.
The BB shows 96s for the straight.
This is where you glare at the BB and storm
off to tell your friends how your AK got
cracked by 96. But this wasn’t a matter
of the BB getting lucky. He played it right
on every street. You made his decisions
easy by not applying pressure with your
bets.
The next time you’re ready to throw
your chips in the pot ask yourself this
question; “Is this bet going to be
easy to call?” If the answer is yes,
then grab some more chips and put some pressure
on your opponents
Rule #2:
Don’t swim with the sharks. This is
the newest addition to my rule book and
it has helped me increase my winnings over
the last 6 months more than anything else.
The basic rule is this. Avoid playing
heads up against players who are as good
as or better than you.
Get your chips from those players that are
less skilled / knowledgeable than you.
There are a number of quality players that
I play against every week with whom I have
never been involved in a big hand. If a
typical table has 4 good players and 5 poor
players, why would you bang heads with the
good players? Get your chips from the ones
you know you can outplay.
This is really very easy to do. If a player
that you believe to be better than you raises,
fold. Simple. Unless you have a premium
hand (AA,KK,QQ,AK), why get involved? Just
wait for an opportunity against a fishy
player.
That means you’ll be folding hands
you might normally play, like AJ or KQs,
etc. If you do have a premium hand, then
don’t just call, re-raise instead.
You want to try to win the hand pre-flop
so you won’t be out played post flop.
Of course, you won’t always be able
to avoid confrontation with a good player,
but you can definitely limit it.
As an example, I recently took a trip to
Tunica with a friend of mine who is a very
good player. Over two days, we played at
the same table for about 16 hours. In all
of that time we only played one hand heads
up and that one was for small dollars. I’m
sure over there were several hands over
those 16 hours where we could have done
battle, but why would we when there was
a super fish at the table giving away enough
for all of the good players to share?
There are plenty of fish to get chips from,
so save the sharks for the final table.
Recognize who the quality players are and
adjust accordingly.
JTD
P.S. Thanks for the article
jtd! jtd is constantly on the leaderboards
at the
weekly Fulltilt Poker Tournaments and
the live Atlanta Poker Club events. If you
liked this article or wanted to discuss
more of the strategy, please join us in
the Poker
Forum.
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